In an interview with the Daily Emerald, Kikachi “Kiki” Akpakwu, the Vice President of the Associated Students of the University of Oregon, answered a series of questions, which all centered around her and ASUO’s plans for the remaining five months of the 2024-2025 academic year.
ASUO is made up of over 25 elected students. “From helping set the Incidental-Fee, allocating funds for student groups, to providing resources for club leaders,” each elected member holds the responsibility “to support all UO students.”
Working alongside Akpakwu is Mariam Hassan, the president of ASUO. They both serve on ASUO’s Executive Branch, which allows them to approve, oversee and work with over 200 student organizations across campus.
Apakwu addressed a series of questions relating to her priorities for the term, challenges she anticipates and more.
What were your primary goals for this term and how are they going?
Akpakwu: [In] our administration this year, one of the primary goals that we’ve had is advocating for basic needs. So, I’m really glad and happy to say that a lot of the work that our cabinet has been doing has been lobbying to increase SNAP [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] eligibility. We’re actually going to be going to Washington, D.C., in March, and that’s one of the things that we’re lobbying for. And we’re lobbying for the Basic Needs and Workforce Stabilization Act in Salem.
We also are just trying to create … the SNAP map, so it’s a map of pretty much grocery stores within the Eugene area that accept SNAP. Hopefully, it will be a resource for students who have SNAP and want to know which grocery stores will be able to serve them.
When you’re lobbying on a federal level, it can sometimes take months, if not years, to kind of get the stuff that you want to the floor. That’s been something that we have been working on extensively over the course of this year, and it’s going at a great rate, and hopefully, we’ll find out by the end of the year where legislators are with our basic needs package.
What are your main priorities for the rest of the term?
Akpakwu: We have some things in store which I’m excited about. So for one, we’re going to be going up to Salem quite a bit to lobby for specific initiatives. We’re in our long session in just legislation right now, which means for a lot of the big new policies, initiatives, acts and reform packages that people want to introduce. This is the year when legislators will look over and decide if they’re going to go with it or not. So, we’re going to be doing a lot of that with higher education funding, especially, and basic needs. The basic needs package and the Clery Act are some of the things that come to mind.
What events should students be aware of?
Akpakwu: We are going to be having a lot of tabling events, we’re going to be doing a hot chocolate bar, [and] we’re going to be doing a healthy parties event and a DIY bouquet-making. The Winter Fest on March 8 is one of the bigger events that we’ll be hosting, so we have a lot of great events coming up. The Spring Street Faire is something that ASUO does every year, and potentially the Spring Festival, which is most likely going to happen in late May.
What challenges do you anticipate and how do you plan to address them?
Akpakwu: The biggest concern that comes to mind at the moment would definitely just be higher education funding on a federal level, and whether that’ll be cut or not. We’re kind of in a tedious place to see what we will have to do if higher education funding is cut.
If [legislators] don’t support the basic needs package, then things could get a bit more tedious in terms of ASUO having to try to find ways to fund basic needs, the food pantry, transportation and housing subsidies. It would become a little bit more complex to maneuver how we can spread the money that way if we don’t get it from the federal or state level. With that type of concern, the most we can do is hope for the best and potentially plan for the worst. That is something that we definitely have in our mindset.
What have you learned last [term] as ASUO Vice President that you will apply to the final months of your term?
Akpakwu: I think that this upcoming year, I have come to realize that the more people involved, the better in any situation, the more voices at the table and the more involvement from students who are non-ASUO members. I’m just going to really seek out input from a lot of different people [regarding] different policies that we enact and we try to do over the course of this year. I think just bettering representation and collaboration is something that I’m excited to emphasize in my work as vice president.
